I’m going to jump back in to Matthew’s Gospels. I think the last time we were in Matthew, it was January or February, and we were in Matthew forever before that. So I’ll be retiring from the ministry about the time that we get to Matthew 28.

And that’s okay.

Slow and steady, I think, wins the race. But I want us to come back to Matthew. I think we had a good reprieve in the summertime, and we looked at some other things, and that’s good. But I do want us to get through Matthew’s Gospel.

And we left off in Matthew 10, verse 5. And we’ll be in 5-15 this morning.

And it says in Matthew’s Gospel, These twelve Jesus sent out instructing them, Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans. But go, Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and proclaim as you go, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You receive without pay, get without pay. Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy, and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town. Amen.

Several weekends ago, my father-in-law came up.

I should say down. He lives in Kentucky. He had bought Darcy and Dawson this monstrous play set.

And it came a few days before he got there in boxes, and not one thing was put together. And so we’re out in the hot sun of July putting together what are notoriously difficult to put together, by the way, this giant wooden, wooden play set for Darcy and Dawson. I mean, it’s got like a rock climbing wall on one side and the tube slide on one side. So it’s this big, massive thing. And it sounds fun, but it was awful because it was, where’s part 4131712? And we’re going through all these bags and where’s wood piece 12 whatever? And you’re just going over and over through all these pieces time and time again to find just the right part to go to the next step. I think there was 134 steps altogether. So we did it. We made it to the end of building this play set. And it was a pain and it was hard, but you know what? We needed those instructions. Had we not had those instructions, it would have been one janky play set in the backyard. Probably wouldn’t be one at all. I would have just given up. So as challenging as it was, we need instruction a lot of times. Instructions are really good to get us to where we need to go. And when we look at this passage this morning, Jesus is sending out his disciples and he gives them a message. He gives them instruction.

He instructs them.

That’s so important for you and I to remember that Jesus is not just calling us. Jesus is instructing us in the way that we should go. He’s telling us, here’s what it looks like to be a disciple. So I want us to see these 12 apostles on a unique mission that Jesus has given them here in chapter 10.

The Lord gives us instructions. Do we know what those instructions are? Are we listening and obeying?

So in verse 5, again, it says, these 12 Jesus sent out, instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, I want to just recap and remind us of what’s going on in Matthew’s Gospel. Remember, Matthew is Jewish and his Gospel, uniquely flavored from the other Gospels, is a Gospel message to the Jews. It’s largely this, hey, our Jewish Messiah,

He’s here. He’s shown up.

And so I want you to remember, we started with, remember, that very special lineage that Jesus has. He came from the lineage of King David all the way back, you know, Abraham to David. And so here Jesus is, and He’s got, if you will, the credentials to be the Jewish Messiah. Jesus has the unique incarnation where He has no true biological earthly Father. But Jesus was placed in Mary by the Spirit passing over her. We saw Jesus’ anointing and baptism for ministry. We saw His wilderness temptation where He, He withstood everything that the enemy threw at Him. And then we saw Jesus’ very unique ministry. Jesus, He preached. He proclaimed the Kingdom. And then Jesus did a special ministry, Him alone, of healing the sick.

Jesus did things no one else could do and no one could explain in the way that He was casting out demons and performing miracles. And then remember, we ended when we had that great and wonderful Sermon on the Mount, that powerful word. And they said, there’s something different about this Jesus. Because no one that we’ve ever known can preach like He preaches. There’s a certain authority. So Jesus shows Himself to be heavenly. He has a heavenly perfection, Jesus does. Jesus has a heavenly power. But it takes this strange turn, and this is the last thing that you and I saw in chapter 10.

Jesus employs people, men, who are not like Him in His heavenly perfections to do what He does.

People that don’t have the power He has to do and be like He is. What did we get? If you remember, we walked through a lot of those disciples in their background. We get this really strange hodgepodge of all these random Jewish dudes. They are not elite.

And as daunting as it would have been for them to say, we have to be a disciple of Jesus, we have to follow this guy and do what he does, it’s just as daunting for us this morning. We’re just as incapable. We’re just as powerless to follow Jesus. But I want us to remember this at the beginning as we look at this, is just as Jesus calls us to that high calling, Jesus alone is able to fit us for the kingdom and equip us for the work of the kingdom.

Jesus is able to fit us for life in His kingdom. Jesus alone is able to equip us for all the kingdom. This is what He calls us to do for His kingdom. So I want you to value that. Value that Jesus gives guidance.

It’s really frustrating as a parent, it’s really frustrating maybe you for as an employer, as a boss, to give good guidance and instruction and yet it’s not followed. Right? And I think that that’s a special thing for us in the church today because if you look around how the church is functioning in the West, it seems like the church does a multiplicity of things today. But I think we have to ask the question, are we doing what Jesus made very clear for us to do? Are we obeying the actual instructions?

The instructions that Jesus is giving. And the instructions He gives to the twelve here is I want you to go to the Israelites only in this mission. So not everything we’re going to see here in this passage is like a copy and paste for us today. But I do believe there are principles of discipleship for us to learn as we look at this. Okay? And so we have to kind of ask that question. I think, now why is Jesus saying to His twelve apostles, go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel? Why not non-Jews or Gentiles? Which is all of us. Unless you have Jewish heritage. Why is that the case? Well, it’s not because Jesus doesn’t love us. Okay? I want you to remember Jesus has come as the what? The Jewish Messiah. Right? And as the Jewish Messiah, Jesus has come to make good on a promise that God made a long time ago. And it was a covenant. So remember, God took Abraham, random pagan Abraham, and said, hey, Abraham, out of you, I’m going to make this great nation. Through this nation, Abraham, that I make out of you, you all will be blessed. But also through you, you will bless all families of the earth. So Jesus is the promise of this one to come who is going to essentially create an eternal Israel. He’s going to make an Israel to last forever. An Israel protected from evil. An Israel secure in righteousness and peace. That’s what the people of Abraham, or the Israelites, were waiting for. So it was never true, and I think we need to remember this, it’s lost. God did not care nothing about all other nations but the Israelites in the Old Testament. Israel’s function in the Old Testament was to protect Israel. It’s to be a light to the nations. The way that they loved their God, the way that they lived according to the law, that should have made the rest of the world go, there’s something different there. Now, did they do it? No, they did not do it. But here the Jewish Messiah has shown up and He said, hey, everybody, you’re king, I’m here now. Now surrender to Me. Jesus has come to be the greater King David to secure His nation in righteousness and peace.

Jesus has come to do what the law could not do and make His people holy.

So Jesus is in the flesh here and He’s sending out His twelve emissaries saying to His people, hey, you people that I have called to be My emissaries, to shine My light, I’m here. Now what’s really sad about the Jews is this. The Jews in the Old Testament did not do it. The Jews in Jesus’ day, did not, would not do it. By the end of the book of Acts, with Paul’s missionary journeys, they still would not do it. By the end of the apostolic era, before we continue on in church history and all the different ages in church history, it’s not the case. Up until the present day, it’s not the case.

I was talking with someone from Jews for Jesus. It’s a website and they just try to evangelize Jews. And she was telling me that there are about 14.7 million Jews in the world. And there’s thought to only be about 250,000 Messianic Jews.

So it doesn’t seem like, does it, that the people of God have said, wow, God has chosen us to know Him.

So that’s the case with the Jews. But I want to do what we’ve got to do and leave the salvation of souls to God. What I want us to see though in these twelve disciples is that they obey the instructions of the Lord. They obey the instructions of the Lord. Are we? And here’s what they were to do, okay? It’s the first thing Jesus said, hey, I want you to go do this. Go proclaim to all my sheep that I love, and He does love them, to Israel,

repent, right? And remember the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And that’s not a surprise because it’s the very first thing John the Baptist does as a preparatory ministry. And then when Jesus shows up, it’s what Jesus does. So Jesus is not saying, hey, y’all go do something I don’t want to do. I’m better than that. Jesus is saying, hey, you want to follow me? Here’s the best thing. The best thing you can do is one of my disciples, and it’s what I’ve been doing. Go and proclaim the King has arrived.

Go tell everybody I’ve shown up. And so that’s a critical function. And I want you to understand, and we talk about it, and we’ve got to keep talking about it, proclaiming the kingdom of heaven, proclaiming the gospel is one of, if not the most important functions of us as God’s people. If we’re not proclaiming, then we’re not, we’re not truly being God’s people. So we need to know that well. I need to grow in my love and understanding. What is the kingdom of heaven? What does it mean deeper, the gospel? Because these are the things that are my business to proclaim them. So kingdom of heaven, I’m going to give our, if you remember it, it’s our very long standing definition of the kingdom of heaven. I haven’t said it in like a year. So see if you can remember. The kingdom of heaven is the spiritual rule and reign of God in our hearts, minds, and lives. That’s the kingdom of heaven. It’s God invading every human soul. And why is Jesus doing that?

Well, friends, it’s because it’s Jesus’ place to be on the throne of every human soul. Every human soul has been created to surrender to Christ, to know Him, to obey Him, to cherish Him, and to worship Him. The Jews, the Jews did not have to wait anymore. He had shown up.

The kings of old, you know, we looked at the kings, you know, the last few weeks, didn’t we? Some of those in the Old Testament. They were not very good at it, were they? They weren’t good at leading their people in holiness and righteousness. The law of Moses that God gave the people, it did not make the people more holy. It exposed to those Jewish people, you are not holy and nothing that you could do can make you holy. So Jesus, Jesus has come to save them, firstly, from Satan, from a broken, violent, corrupt world, and from their own selves. Jesus has come to overwhelm darkness with light. Jesus has come to overwhelm evil with good. The question becomes how? Because if you consider Jesus’ strategy doesn’t seem very good. Remember Jesus’ own hometown, they thought, the carpenter’s son? Seriously? Jesus said, I can’t do any miracles here. You people don’t have any faith.

Jesus does not have an army. Jesus does not have political sway. In fact, all the political leaders hate his guts. Jesus is not surrounded by a bunch of sharp folks, is he? So Jesus, what is your strategy here?

And I think that’s where we have to pause and realize this is what’s so beautiful about the kingdom of heaven. And this is what’s so beautiful. What’s so beautiful about the gospel is that it comes in a way that only makes sense to God and it makes no sense to us. Jesus didn’t need a bunch of money and power. Here’s what Jesus needed and this is what Jesus had and this is who Jesus was. Jesus was the holy pre-incarnate God and Jesus came in the flesh and in the flesh, Jesus did something for you now that we can never do for ourselves regardless of how much money or power or willpower we have. Jesus was holy and Jesus was righteous. And Jesus lived a perfect life according to the law of Moses and He fulfilled all that you and I could not fulfill. That’s what Jesus did in the flesh. Jesus showed Himself to be a perfect picture of humanity. He’s a perfect picture of humanity.

There’s no money that can get you that.

Jesus on the cross carrying our sins as a perfect picture of humanity. He carried all of our sins and dying on that cross atoning for all of our sins before God and then dying to those sins in the grave thereby fulfilling the law. You know what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 Jesus did? Jesus took the sting out of death.

He defanged the serpent. What’s so bad about getting bit by a snake? It’s those teeth and it’s that venom. It’ll kill you. But Jesus has done this unique thing by His own life without the help of anyone else, without the way you and I think. Here’s what Jesus did. Jesus alone by His own person He saved us from our sins. He saved us from the enemy. He’s making us new people in Him and we trust in Him. The resurrected Christ has given us new life with Him over death, over the grave. Jesus has given us a new life in the kingdom. That’s the beauty. And that’s the power of the gospel this morning. The gospel is the good news about what Jesus Christ alone has done to bring us back into the kingdom of heaven. That’s why we preach the kingdom. Hey world,

sin sick. Hey world, confused about gender. Hey world, with broken marriages all over the place and sicknesses and viruses. Hey world, completely lost and confused.

Let me tell you about the kingdom of heaven. Let me tell you about Jesus that bridged the gap. Let me tell you about the good news of who Jesus is and what Jesus did to make us new and to save us. The gospel is the gospel because Jesus is Jesus.

The gospel is the gospel because Jesus is Jesus. The whole of Christianity rides on this person.

Jesus.

In the inauguration of this wonderful kingdom that had come, it was lost on Israel. It was lost on Israel.

They were deaf and they were blind to hear it and see it.

But I want us to see though what is your business and my business. I was kind of at first working through this passage like this is random because we’re just going to be talking about Jews and Israel and how is it helpful. But actually it’s a great and wonderful reminder for us when we consider what this means for us. And here’s what it means for us if we look in Matthew 28-19 and I’ve preached this before and we’ve talked about it before. It’s Jesus’ great commission. Here’s what He says to the church, His true people. He says, Go therefore unto all the nations and what? Make disciples

of one nation. It’s not what He said. He says go and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Friends, you and I, we have been called by grace by this Gospel and to the wonderful Kingdom of Heaven. And so also, you and I, if we are God’s people, we will hear the instruction of the Lord and what will we do? We will proclaim it. We will share it. Here’s what Jesus did to bring us into the Kingdom. That’s what disciples of Jesus do. Paul says in Galatians 3, verse 29, if you have faith in Christ, then you are true Israel. If you have faith in Christ, you are truly a descendant and a spiritual offspring of Abraham. That’s true Israel. And friends, when we not just believe in Christ, but we obey the instructions of the Lord, are we being disciples of Jesus? We’re being disciples of Jesus.

And I really wanted to say that this morning to us because I think you’ve got to admit that this year

in the COVID era, which hopefully is going to end very soon, right? If it’s done anything negative, I think it’s bred a sense of lethargy. You know, we’re just surviving. We’re just going from day to day. What’s the bad news? I’m not seeing anybody. I’m just doing my work. And it just kind of erases purpose, doesn’t it? It just feels very empty. And I want to sharpen us. Rather, I’d say I want the Word of God to convict us and sharpen us whatever weird season. What if it gets worse? What if the government does say you’re not allowed to leave your house? And what if the government does say all the crazy things? And I’m not even speaking… I’m just saying right or wrong. What if the situation got way worse?

You and I still have to be like, okay, that’s unfortunate. Unfortunate. Number one objective, make disciples. You know what I’m saying? I can’t… Well, I’m just going to survive and I’m just trying to keep my family and we’re just going to make it to the grave. Yeah, the Lord wants you to take care of your family. Yeah, you’ve got to do your job. There are all these really important things to take care of. But friends, whatever happens in life, the Lord’s never saying, yeah, hey, that was a really weird season of life. Of course you didn’t have to make disciples in that season of life. Of course you didn’t have to proclaim the Gospel. It’s the opposite. You can say to your neighbors, hey, neighbor, did you know that things are the way… the way that things are? Did you know we’re wearing masks? Did you know that things are confused? Did you know that politics in America are a joke because we’re all corrupted and broken? Did you know that Jesus is going to come back one day and He’s going to make all things new? Every broken situation in life is a gift to you to leverage the Gospel message because Christ alone speaks into every broken situation.

That’s what’s so great about it. Are your relationships broken? Let me tell you about Jesus who heals these things. Are you sick? Let me tell you about the healer. Are you afraid? Let me tell you about the victor.

Will you die soon? Let me tell you about the one who has eternal life. Friends, we are a proclaiming people and our eternal home is not here.

What do we do? What do we do with verse 8 though? And I want to just consider it with you because it’s here. And in verse 8, Jesus gives them the command to heal the sick,

raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. So what do we do with that? Because I have never, and you probably, if you have, that’s cool. You probably have never raised somebody from the dead or done something like this. So what do we do with that? Well, a pretty, I think, important, radical principle to remember is this. Just because you see something happen in Scripture doesn’t mean it’s normative for every era of church history. Okay? So that’s especially true in the Old Testament just because you see something happen. Narrative is not normative. Narrative is, so if you see something happen in the narrative of the Old Testament, it’s not God saying, oh, you should do that too. Like, Elijah called down fire on sinful people, so the next time that guy makes you mad, you just open the window up and God will, you know, send fire down too. That’s not, that’s not at all what’s happening here. And we have to leave, we have to leave that to the apostolic era, these apostles in this very special foundation-laying era of the church. God did give them very great powers to do miraculous things. Now, I will say this. I know some missionaries, and I have no reason to doubt their integrity, and they’ve told me, man, I was over in India, I was in Africa, and this girl had this huge tumor, and it was massive, and we put our hands on there, and we prayed, and it was gone after the prayer. And I have no reason to disbelieve that, and you don’t either. So I’m not, I’m not saying God won’t use us or use people in certain parts of the world to do that stuff. Praise God for that. At the same time, I wouldn’t say that’s what’s normal in the everyday life of a church leader or for you. And that’s okay. So we say, praise God, He gave that power to them. And I want to answer the question, why though? One, to authenticate the gospel. Showing up in a town and raising people from the dead and healing the sick, you know what it did? It said, this gospel message is different. Because look what these, look what these men can do. Don’t mess with them. Right? These men can do crazy things. They have the power of God in them. But secondly, and I want you to see this because this is relevant for us, why did God allow them to do miracles when they went and preached the gospel? Because God loves people. That’s why. And just as God would heal the soul, Jesus loves us enough that He would heal the body. Charles Spurgeon says this, having ministered to souls, they were to bless the bodies of men and thus they would confirm their message by their miracles. These deeds of mercy are on the ascending scale. Note the step. All was to be done without fee or reward. Their powers had not been purchased. Their miracles were not to be sold. So it was honest to God benevolence. And I think in the same way that principle is there as you and I have freely received eternal life from Christ, we liberally preach the gospel.

And so we liberally give ourselves away sacrificially to bless others, to help others, to be a minister to others, certainly to one another in the church, but how and where God leads us to bless and help those who need it, the poor, the sick, the hurting in our communities and in the world around us. It just validates a gospel message that says these people aren’t selling something. They’re not charging money. They’re freely giving themselves away as the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross.

So are we proclaiming the word? Are we going and doing? You know, just to kind of hang out on that again for a second, Billy Graham, when he would do sound checks, when he would do like an interview on TV, when he’d have to do a sound check, he would say John 3.16. You know, and somebody asked him one time, hey, how come you say John 3.16 and say like check, check or whatever when you’re doing it? And he said, well, if I don’t get a chance to share the gospel in the interview, at least the cameraman heard me share the gospel. And sound check.

You go on the opposite side of that. There’s a lady, and I don’t know if I’ve mentioned her before. Her name’s Rosaria Butterfield. She was once, back in the 90s, a leading force for the feminist movement, LGBT causes.

She was a professor at a well-to-do university. And a pastor and his wife just made a friendship with her and they invited her into her home. And over a length of time, just befriending her, loving her, sharing the gospel, with her over time, she slowly came to faith. And now she is a very real force for the Lord in talking about issues related to feminism and LGBT. And she has a lot of wonderful books out. All that to say, the Lord is saying in your context and the way that I lead you to do it, be a proclaiming people.

Be a proclaiming people.

I want to say secondly before that to us, just this morning, and I’ve said it before, do you cherish the gospel? It’s really difficult to give something away you don’t all that much love yourself. It’s really difficult to say, oh, you need this in your life. When the gospel’s like, oh, yeah, I’m a Christian.

Let’s watch TV. It’s so easy to fall into that trap. So you and I have got to constantly sit down and we’ve got to meditate and we’ve got to ask the Lord, Lord, by your spirit, like, realign my priorities that they wouldn’t be earthly. Realign my priorities that I’ve got a mind for heaven and I desire to know the power of this gospel and I desire to see the power of this gospel be made real in the lives of those around me. You know, because you know what you and I don’t have. What you and I don’t have is a product to sell. Hey, is your life not very good? Well, hey, let me tell you about Jesus. He’s come to fix your life and make it better. Brr! That’s what you call self-help. That’s what you call self-help program. What you and I have is a message to Harold. Hey! The King’s coming. The King’s coming. And He demands that you die.

But in dying, He’s going to bring you back to life to be something new and beautiful. It’s not a product to sell. It’s a person to surrender to. Have we surrendered to His heart for ourselves, but have we surrendered to His instructions? And then I want to say this.

And maybe we’ve not thought about it. And honestly, I was convicted about this studying for this sermon. We should be praying for the Jews. God loves the Jews. Jesus wept over the Jews. And does God want every nation to come to Christ? Yes, but Paul’s very clear in Romans that there’s a partial hardening on the Jews right now. But that will be lifted. So we’ll be praying, Lord, save more of your chosen people from the Old Testament. They have heart and souls too. And even, Lord, send me, let me go to Israel and I’ll tell somebody about Jesus. You know, so have a heart for the Jews. Have a heart for the nations. Have a heart for more than just what’s going on in your own space. And the Lord is calling us to see how He’s working globally to bring in the nations to His kingdom.

Alright?

So look back with me if you would at verse 8.

I assume everyone’s really into this sermon with face masks on. And, you know, I don’t know what faces you could be making, so I’m just going to assume everyone’s just amazed right now.

I just see eyeballs. Alright. Verse 8.

He says, Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. But then He goes on in 9, say, Acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, nor two tunics or sandals or staff for the laborer deserves his food. And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. And as you enter the house, greet it. And if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it.

But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.

I don’t know if you’ve ever gone camping.

When I was in my early 20s, I got it in my head like I was going to be this camping machine. I went out and bought this expensive, expensive tent. Bought this really nice sleeping bag, like all these cool gadgets. I bought this kit where you could like fillet a fish in the wild. I have no idea how to fillet a fish in the wild, but I had the kit. And I bought all of this stuff. And I went camping like once and it’s all still, you know, in my attic. But there’s this feeling when you go camping or, you know, RVing or whatever it is, you better take as much as you can take because you rely on you out there. You know, you see those shows or you hear, you know, horror stories of people being stranded in the wild. You are your only help in the wild. So if you’re smart, what do you do when you’re going on a journey like that? Well, you prepare, right? Take as much as you can take. Prepare for the worst situation even.

Yet Jesus is saying the exact opposite thing to these 12 disciples, his apostles. He’s saying, hey, why don’t y’all be minimalist? Take one pair of clothes, one pair of shoes. Don’t take a bunch of extra money and just go.

That seems like bad advice, doesn’t it? Because you and I, we’re wired, aren’t we, to plan. You got a day, like your digital calendar on your phone. Mine gives me alerts when things are supposed to happen. We like to make budgets. Here’s the monthly budget. We like to have health care plans. Like, okay, if something happens to the family, I know I’m safe, right? Car insurance.

Retirement. We really, really, really like to be prepared and eliminate the factor of the unknown, don’t we? But Jesus is saying, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hold on. It was me that you placed faith in alone to save you, so guess what? It’s going to be me alone that provides for you in everything that you need to do all my will.

So I think that’s such a powerful thing to grab. If Jesus is the one that we’re trusting to save our souls, He is, He’s calling you and I just the same to provide for the details of every mission that He’s calling us to undertake for His name’s sake.

So the apostles weren’t, hey, Jesus, we appreciate that message, but we’re going to get together and we’re going to have a brainstorming session about how we’re going to pull this off. He says, no, go, and I’m going to meet your needs. I’m going to take care of you. That’s the blessed assurance Jesus gives us that as we do all His will and as we function as the church, He’s going to take care of you. He’s going to meet our needs. He’s going to meet our needs. And I kind of wanted to just take this spot this morning to pause and say, no, we’re not like door-to-door missionaries that they were. But I was telling Jessica that this passage just pushed me to praise the Lord because I look back

at Providence for us over the last, what’s almost two years now, and man, has it been exciting just to see the Lord bless and keep us here. I look back and I remember I remember us jumping out and like, okay, what’s going to happen? We don’t know. And I remember sweating bullets some nights and just like, okay, Lord, you know, we have this many people and this, and we need this. We’re not even close to needing that. But you know, it’s just been amazing to see people just, one, you as a church, and this is just a thank you from my heart, you have generously given and you have said, we’re going to support the work at Providence and we’re going to obey the Scriptures and we’re going to love our pastor and help take care of his needs. So that’s both a thank you from me and also say, way to go obeying the Scriptures on that. But it’s been so encouraging how God has used you to fund the work of the kingdom here. But also, just crazy things. Jessica and I have had family members in the last, you know, months who really aren’t connected with the church at all and I don’t know why and they’ve just sent us these giant financial gifts and it’s been amazing. Last week, a church up in Louisville, they sent us $2,500, not us, they sent Providence $2,500 and they said they’ll be sending us a chunk of money like every quarter for a long time. So God has just been so faithful to bring along more workers and He’s been faithful just to watch our finances grow and I guess I just say that to say don’t think that’s a small thing. That’s such a big thing. That’s such a big thing to see how God takes care of our finances. Of His works and the works that His people are doing wherever that is around the globe and we can say, God, we’re here for you so we don’t need to worry. You’re going to take care of this and as we do the business of obeying You and making disciples, You’re going to meet our needs and take care of us. So I kind of wanted just to offer that up as just an opportunity for just to praise the Lord and like see that text in action for us. That’s at Providence and how we’re just trusting His provision for all things.

That’s really all I had to share on that this morning. I think just what I want to say to you just kind of just closing on that is why does the Lord give us instruction? He gives us instruction because He intends for us to do well. I think it’s really easy to get ourselves thinking, I mean, the Christian life’s this big thing and am I going to figure it out? Am I going to make God happy? Is God pleased? I think all we have to do is look at His Word and say, God’s very clear about what it looks like to make disciples. He’s given us His written Word because He desires to say to us, well done, good and faithful servant. All we need to do is obey that Word, take God at His Word and trust Him alone. So that’s what by God’s grace we’ve been doing and that’s what by God’s grace I want us to continue to do as Providence regardless of what seasons of life come for us in the months ahead. Amen.